Time Over

You may be looking for Game Over.

Time Over (also known as Time Up) refers to a moment in the video games, when the player has exceeded the available in-game time limit to complete a level. Time Over is also involved in Sonic the Hedgehog games, as similar to Game Over, words "Time Over" come to screen, when this moment happens.

Description

In the early main installments for Sega Mega Drive, the time limit the player has to complete each Act is 10 minutes; otherwise they will lose a life. During the Act, the "Time" of the HUD on the top-left corner of the screen starts flashing after passing 9 minutes. After 10 minutes (even though it stops at 9 minutes 59 seconds), the player loses a life, while the Time Over message appears. After this, the player will restart the Act from the latest Star Post, but the timer will reset to 0:00. If the player loses their last life due to a Time Over, the Game Over message will show instead of the Time Over message.

In the two-player mode of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, if one of the players reaches the Signpost first, the other player also needs to reach to the signpost within 61 seconds. When 12 seconds are remaining, the drowning music starts playing at background until if the player runs out of time, then the Time Over appears. In Master System and Game Gear games, the time limit is also existent, while also in 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Chaos and Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, Special Stages also have certain time limit as well. The timer however counts backwards to the zero, as the player will be then transported out the Special Stage. Games such as Sonic Advance, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II also features Time Over like in earlier games. Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure have Time Over as well but they can be disabled in 'Options' but in this case during a stage, the time on the HUD will still flash red when it reaches 9 minutes and the timer stops on 9 min 59 sec but the player does not lose a life. Sonic Mania does make use of the Time Over as well (provided that the Time Limit is turned on), but the timer does not begin flashing at the 9-minute mark.

Since Sonic Adventure, the Time Over have become non-existent in 3D games, although there are a few exceptions. For example, E-102 Gamma's missions in Sonic Adventure involve a time limit which starts at three minutes, and extra time is awarded for destroying the targets. If the time runs out, the player has to try the mission again. Sonic Adventure 2/Battle features action stages like Security Hall, where Rouge the Bat has to find the three Chaos Emeralds in Prison Island's security chamber within five minutes before the Prison Island blows up; the final boss, Finalhazard, is limited to four minutes before it enters atmosphere and destroys the planet. The fourth mission of almost every stage features a time limit taking from as little as two minutes (Wild Canyon and Metal Harbor) to eight minutes (Cosmic Wall), and the timer slowly flashes yellow and amber at the top right corner of the screen (quickly flashes red and orange once one minute remains). If the timer reaches zero, the player will start from the beginning of the stage and lose a life, similar to manually restarting the stage. In Sonic Heroes, there are extra missions (namely all of Team Sonic's and some of Team Chaotix's) that involve reaching the Goal Ring or completing an objective within the given time limit. In these missions, the timer for the time limit is displayed in green at the bottom right corner of the screen (turns yellow once there is one minute remaining and slowly flashes red and orange once there are eleven seconds remaining). If the player fails to complete the mission within the time limit, they will respawn at the beginning of the stage without losing a life. In Shadow the Hedgehog, the time limit exists for the following stages and/or its missions: Central City (8 minutes for either mission), Cosmic Fall (15 minutes for either mission), Space Gadget (5 minutes for the Hero mission only) and The Last Way (10 minutes). The player dies if the timer expires (except for Space Gadget's Hero mission in which case the mission is simply failed). In Sonic Generations, there are some challenges which involve the time limit as well.

Sonic Lost World features the time limit on normal Zones of the game. On the Wii U/PC version, the timer will count down to zero instead of the standard stopwatch timer (each Zone has its own timer). The stopwatch timer has been kept in Nintendo 3DS version of the game, similar to normal Sonic games. Getting a Time Over on the Nintendo 3DS version will cause the words "Time's Up" to appear, resetting the timer back to its full amount, depending on the Zone. When the player completes the stage if they got a Time Over, the best record for the player's time will not be written, as it will be blank.

Although Sonic Forces does not feature a life system at all, it also made use of the Time Over mechanic. Each stage in the game has a 60-minute time limit, which the clock will begin flashing at 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Should a Time Over occur, the game will end and the player will be returned to the World Map.

Trivia

• In Sonic the Hedgehog CD, if the player waits three minutes at one stand, Sonic is then heard saying "I'm outer here!" and then jumps off of the screen and the player receives an instant Game Over.
  • Similarly, if the player waits one minute without doing anything in Knuckles' Chaotix, Metal Sonic arrives, starts loading and performs the V. Maximum Overdrive or Plasma Pulse Attack into playable characters, which is able to hurt them and lose Combi partner.
• The most well known place to get a Time Over by many fans, is in the closed barrel room of Carnival Night Act 2 in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, due to the confusion of the barrel's controlling.
• The manual of Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version) mentions there is a 10-minute time limit for clearing day stages (like the previous Sonic games) although it is non-existent in the final version of the game.
• In Sonic Lost World, when the timer goes down to 20 seconds, a faster arrangement of "Wonder World" starts playing.
  • This is the only game in the Sonic series that plays unique music when running out of time.